On Wednesday night legislature leaders, Mccain and Obama were called to a White House summit to discuss the current financial crisis. Bush warned that if the $700 billion financial bailout wasn't acted on, we could face a recession, and be thrown into another great depression. The Democrats and Republicans were finally reaching an agreement and have a meeting set for Thursday to start drafting a bipartisan bill. Bush describes the consequences of not acting soon: "America could slip into a financial panic and a distressing scenario would unfold". This distressing scenario might include shrinking retirement savings, rising foreclosures, lost jobs and closed businesses.
This brought me back to The Crucible, and the Salem Witch Trials. In my opinion, the main reason so many people were killed was because of the mass hysteria that broke out due to the rising fear of witchcraft, and this was brought about by the fact that the puritan community was steadily falling apart. The Puritans were facing perilous times, and witchcraft was brought into the picture to bring them closer together. It's pretty obvious that it didn't work out so well for them. Now, in modern day perilous times, will we face another set of Salem Witch Trials? Probably not, but I think we need to get out of these times as quickly as we can before America slips into panic.
1 comment:
Pay close attention to the rhetoric/language leaders use in perilous times (nice job incorporating the quote from President Bush). You'll definitely see some interesting examples in Act 3 of "The Crucible."
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